A real satellite office: SF’s Planet expands to Seattle area

Huge screens show the positions of the dozens of satellites currently orbiting earth, seen at the Planet headquarters in downtown San Francisco. The company is now opening a Seattle-area office.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

In a new space race, Seattle may be giving the Bay Area a run for its money. Planet, a San Francisco company that develops small satellites known as CubeSats, is opening an office in Bellevue, Wash.

Planet, formerly Planet Labs, operates 60 satellites that capture images of nearly 20 million square miles — three times the size of Russia — of Earth every day, said Chief Technology Officer Karthik Govindhasamy.

“Our goal is to image every day, everywhere on Earth,” he said.

The company is among a dozen or more Bay Area space startups building tiny satellites to send into space.

A similar boom in space-related business has been under way in Seattle for longer than most think. The Boeing Space Center in nearby Kent opened in 1964. In the same suburban city, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is working on sending private citizens into space.

The growing computer industry, high-tech manufacturing and technical education have ushered in a new era for Seattle’s space industry. Planet’s new office could capitalize on that.

It has hired two people in Bellevue and will eventually have 10 to 20 employees there. They will work on the Planet Web app and tools for developers who want to use its images and data.

Planet, which builds the satellites it operates as well as the software that runs them, contracts with governments and other organizations to license its imagery. Data from Planet have been used recently to identify failed missile tests in North Korea, measure crop yields and aid first responders to natural disasters, the company said.

The company has secured nearly $200 million in venture capital funding.